Translating the Khutbah while the Imaam is on the pulpit
Fatwa No: 153035

Question

selam aliykum i have one question...is it permissable to transilate the concept of khutba while the imam is on the mimber befor finishing the khutba...coz one of our imam is doing it here..gezakumulahu khiera

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If the person who translates the Khutbah is one of the people led in prayer and he translates the Khutbah while the Imaam is delivering it, then we have not come across a clear statement of the scholars about the ruling on this issue. However, it is feared that this act is contrary to the prohibition of the Prophet against talking during the Khutbah, so one should avoid doing this.

Also, if it is the Imaam himself who translates the Khutbah after finishing it and before the prayer, or that he appoints someone else to do that, then this also should not be done because many scholars conditioned the consecutiveness between the two Khutbas, and the consecutiveness between the two Khutbas and the prayer, which means that there should not be a long interval between them.

However, if the Imaam translates his Khutbah while giving it, in a way that he says a sentence in Arabic and then he says it in another language, then there is no prohibition in doing so as it does not contradict the consecutiveness between the two Khutbas, and it does not contradict the consecutiveness between the two Khutbas and the prayer.

Nonetheless, what is better than all this is that the Imaam or someone else translates the Khutbah or its main points after finishing the prayer in order to avoid the above prohibitions. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 81486 and 81541.

Allaah Knows best.

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